The Effect of Malaria on Settlement and Land Use: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

Shufang Zhang (zhang@unrisd.org), Marcia Castro (mcastro@hsph.harvard.edu) and David Canning
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Marcia Castro: Harvard School of Public Health

PGDA Working Papers from Program on the Global Demography of Aging

Abstract: We estimate the effect of malaria on settlement and land use patterns in the Brazilian Amazon, where potential settlers were randomly assigned to plots in a newly opened settlement area. The random assignment allows us to estimate the risk of malaria on each plot based only on its characteristics. Using survey data, we find that a high malaria risk significantly reduces the probability that a plot is inhabited. Using satellite images, we find that a high malaria risk does not reduce forest clearance or crop coverage on a plot. Non-resident farming substitutes for physical inhabitation when malaria risk is high.

Keywords: malaria; settlement; land use; Brazil; Amazon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-hea
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